The goal of this study is to evaluate a preventive-intervention program designed to help pregnant adolescents and their partners make a successful transition to parenthood, defined in terms of the quality of their co-parenting relationship and their functioning as parents. The importance of developing such a program is underscored by the large numbers of young couples who have serious problems maintaining a successful co-parenting relationship and the need for innovative interventions for reducing the well known risks associated with both dysfunctional co-parenting and adolescent parenthood. This flexible 5-10 week intervention will be administered prior to childbirth and will focus on the development of interpersonal skills and improving the quality of the relationship. The interpersonal focus of the intervention program is based on several preliminary studies of young couples making the transition to parenthood and a review of previous research on couples therapy, adolescent interpersonal development, and interpersonally based models of prevention and intervention. The study design will be a randomized prevention trial in which 90 expectant couples will be recruited from a university based clinic providing services to pregnant teenagers and assigned to one of two groups. Sixty couples will be recruited to participate in the intervention and 30 couples will serve as controls. The project will be divided into three phases. The first phase will focus on refining the intervention protocol, developing a manual, and training therapists (interventionists). The second phase will include (a) participant recruitment, (b) collecting baseline data, focusing primarily on the couple's relationship, (c) administering the program to the intervention group, and (d) collecting the first wave of follow-up data at six weeks post birth. The first follow up will focus on changes in the quality of the couples' relationships. The third phase of the study will include a preliminary evaluation of program effects and a second follow up focusing on parental functioning at 18 months post birth. Primary analyses will focus on testing the effects of program participation on the quality of co-parenting relationships and the quality of parental functioning, defined in terms of parenting attitudes, parenting stress and observed parenting behavior.
| Zhang, Shun; McGoy, Shanell L; Dawes, Daniel et al. (2014) The potential for elimination of racial-ethnic disparities in HIV treatment initiation in the Medicaid population among 14 southern states. PLoS One 9:e96148 |
| Florsheim, Paul; Burrow-Sanchez, Jason (2013) Florsheim and Burrow-Sanchez respond. Am J Public Health 103:e3-4 |
| Florsheim, Paul; Burrow-Sanchez, Jason J; Minami, Takuya et al. (2012) Young parenthood program: supporting positive paternal engagement through coparenting counseling. Am J Public Health 102:1886-92 |
